The Morph Action packed adult fantasy

                Hello fellow book lovers!  I have been totally obsessed with reading a couple of series and haven’t been doing much reviewing.  So I’m taking today off from reading, or at least until I can write a few reviews and catch up.  Today I want to talk about The Morph by J.C. Andrijeski.  If you are a regular reader then the name probably sounds familiar, I first heard of her books at the start of 2014 and have read the vast majority of her books and enjoyed them immensely.  Now I will go ahead and warn these are not YA books and deal with more adult themes and such.  The Morph was provided to be through NetGalley for an honest review.

                As I mentioned I am already a fan of the author, and am currently reading two other series by J.C. Andrijeski, Allie’sWar and The Slave Girl Chronicles.  So I was more than ready to start another one while I wait for more in those.  The Morph is book 1 in The Gate Shifters series and currently has two books out.  Yeah I found out about book 2 Crash Morph from the author herself when I mentioned how much I loved The Morph on her blog page.  Turns out it isn’t listed in the series on Goodreads (at this time, I have contacted them to see about adding it), but I found it and am currently reading it.  Like the rest of her books, The Morph has a TON going on.  There is constant actions, suspense, world building and exploring, strong characters with a slew of personal issues, devious plotting, and oh yeah some serious sexual tension.  A brief summary:

                Dakota Reyes, a twenty-something private eye who specializes in what she calls ‘hard-to-prosecute’ cases, finds herself in a dark alley one night, about to end up dead at the hands of a young Ted Bundy in training…that is, until a lost, shape-shifting alien named Nihkil rescues her, and inadvertently takes her home with him.  The problem is, his home is in a different dimension, and Dakota has no clue how to get back to Seattle, or Earth, or even her own time period.  She finds herself bound to her rescuer, Nihkil, through his ‘lock,’ a quasi-biological structure that controls whether he can shape-shift, among other things, which he needs to be able to do in order to get her back home.  Only Dakota has no idea how to open Nik’s lock, and the longer she spends in his world, the more forces begin to align against them, trying to prevent her from getting home.

                Our main character, Dakota, is a strong and independent female.  She has a less than safe or normal day, or should I say night, job and she is a fighter.  She goes for what she wants and she is willing to fight with every ounce of herself for it.  Dakota is not the type to go down without a fight, that’s for sure.  She ends up in a new world where everything is flipped on its head.  She’s lost and confused and unsure who to trust and most importantly she just wants to survive and go home.  She may be strong and independent but she is also flawed; somewhat proud and not the best at communicating feelings.  One of my favorite things about her though is her ability to roll with the punches.  She knows things need to be explained and she knows she isn’t getting it sometimes but she makes the most of what she has and goes with it until she can find a moment to get more information.  Oh and her connection with Nihkil.

                Oh Nihkil.  I like him because he is VERY flawed.  I wasn’t 100% sure if I liked him or not through part of the book.  He seems like a good guy but it wavers for a bit and I liked the uncertainty, really you have to make up your mind for yourself if you trust him or you don’t.  That is made harder because he’s not very forthcoming.  He’s pretty secretive and much like his counterpart, Dakota, is not getting a gold star for his communication skills.  Though I admit I gave him a bit more slack in this because well he’s not human so I cut a morph some slack.  Nihkil is a very complex character and he has some serious issues, many of with leave him unsure of his role in life and unsure of himself. And the tension between them is very solidly there but it doesn’t overpower the rest of the story.

A perfect reason to add pretty pictures like this!

                 And remember the little part about a new world, a new dimension.  There is a lot of world building and learning of the new world and adapting to the cultural differences and views.  Some things remain the same but the majority of things are different.  We see new creatures and places.  Hello aliens are real.  There is a total structure change for the government/society.  Morphs, they are treated like slaves or pets.  It’s a very harsh and brutal world, but even in the vicious world there are still spots of beauty and The Morph finds a good balance with that and not bogging you down with too much world that you lose the story.  Things are always in a state of constant motion in one way or another, from internal struggles to knock down drag out action, or the political games, and war.  Things are never boring that’s for sure. 

                I’m currently enjoying the second book.  If you like high action, complex characters with issues, fantasy, and adult themes then I highly recommend checking out this book.  I give it 5 Stars!